San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich protests a call by referee Gediminas Petraitis during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. The Clippers won 113-110. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Clippers guard Tyrone Wallace (12) recovers the ball as San Antonio Spurs guard Dejounte Murray (5) falls during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

San Antonio Spurs guard/forward Danny Green (14) dunks over Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

San Antonio Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) blocks the shot attempt of Los Angeles Clippers guard Austin Rivers (25) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams (23) passes under pressure from San Antonio Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. The Clippers won 113-110. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

San Antonio Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) slams against the Los Angeles Clippers during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. The Clippers won 113-110. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers protests an official's call during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. The Clippers won, 113-110. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Clippers forward/center Montrezi Harrell (5) protests a foul call during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. The Clippers won, 113-110. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Clippers forward/center Montrezi Harrell dribbles the ball under his legs in a courtside seat during warmups for an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. The Clippers won 113-110. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Fans of San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who is from Argentina, cheer before an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

LOS ANGELES — The Clippers looked beaten, deflated, the fight finally gone out of them Tuesday.

Then a funny thing happened.

They regained their will.

The Clippers rallied from a 19-point second-quarter deficit, answering every challenge from the San Antonio Spurs and pulling out a 113-110 victory at Staples Center that kept their faint playoff hopes alive with their second-biggest comeback win of the season.

Lou Williams’ jump shot gave the Clippers a 106-105 lead in the closing seconds, but Patty Mills countered with a 3-pointer for the Spurs at the other end. Austin Rivers put the Clippers back in front with a 3-pointer. Mills then missed badly, with the ball going out of bounds with 6 seconds left.

Williams was fouled and sank two free throws with 4.6 seconds to go.

Rivers fouled Mills with 3.9 seconds remaining and Mills made both to cut it to 111-110.

Tobias Harris then sank two free throws to seal it for the Clippers with 2.9 seconds left.

Or so it seemed.

Manu Ginobili stepped out of bounds on the Spurs’ final possession, his 3-point attempt missing the mark. A video replay left the crowd of 17,449 standing and unsure what to do next. Finally, the review confirmed the call on the court. It was the Clippers’ ball.

“I kept saying in timeouts, ‘We have plenty of time, we’re going to win this game, we have plenty of time,’” Coach Doc Rivers said after the Clippers nearly matched their 21-point comeback in their Jan. 28 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Harris led the Clippers with 31 points, keeping them within striking distance after they fell behind by 19 points in the second quarter. He scored 10 in the second, when the Clippers closed with a 19-7 run that got them to within 56-49 by halftime.

Williams scored 22 points, including 15 on 6-for-8 shooting in the fourth quarter. He also had the game’s biggest assist, setting up Austin Rivers’ go-ahead 3-pointer that made it 109-108 with 29 seconds left.

“It says he’s a great teammate,” Austin Rivers said of Williams. “It says he has trust in me.”

LaMarcus Aldridge scored 11 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Spurs.

The Clippers (42-36) remained in 10th place in the Western Conference, one game behind the ninth-place Denver Nuggets. However, the Clippers moved with 1-1/2 games of the eighth-place Pelicans, who were idle, and two games of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who also did not play.

Only the top eight teams in the conference advance to the playoffs.

The Clippers’ heavy lifting continues Thursday, when they face the Utah Jazz at Salt Lake City before returning home for games Saturday against the Nuggets, Monday against the Pelicans and April 11 against the Lakers in their regular-season finale.

“You don’t have enough time to sit around and celebrate, you’ve just got to get ready for Utah,” Doc Rivers said. “They’re playing great. Like, tonight, I’ll be watching Utah (on video) and tomorrow morning and all day tomorrow, and we’ve got to figure out how to play them.

“Tonight was great. We had to win and we did that. Now we have to do the same thing in Utah.”

Getting off to a better start will be high on the Clippers’ to-do list Thursday. They trailed the Spurs 17-3 and couldn’t match their energy in the opening minutes. They trailed by 49-30 after Dejounte Murray’s driving dunk with 5:19 left in the half, and it looked grim.

The Clippers refused to quit, however.

“We just kept hooping,” Austin Rivers said. “At this point, we have nothing to lose. We have no time to get discouraged. We had to go 5-0. Now we have to go 4-0. It doesn’t matter what run a team goes on. If we quit, we know we’re quitting on the year.”

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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